To be offered in Petrol and CNG variants

Back in 2017, the Japanese giants - Suzuki and Toyota - decided to collaborate globally. This partnership gave assurance for the production of various cars under both the brands. The Suzuki - Toyota affair has given us many offerings from either side till now. It all started by Toyota rebadging Suzuki cars. For instance, The Suzuki Baleno became Toyota Glanza and The Maruti Brezza became Toyota Urban Cruiser ( Discontinued ). But, this collaboration till now was just seen Toyota rebadging Suzuki cars. Well, things quite changed in 2022, the collaboration was first time seen producing an all new car rivalling Creta and Seltos, the name goes Grand Vitara with Suzuki’s logo and Urban Cruiser Hyryder with Toyota’s logo and their very recent affair turned the faces towards Suzuki, as this time Suzuki was seen rebadging a Toyota - Toyota Innova Hycross rebadged to Maruti Suzuki Invicto.

Now, this partnership has again brought something new for us. This time again Toyota has decided to rebadge a Maruti Suzuki and it happens to be the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga rebadged to Toyota Rumion. Well, this was heavily anticipated by the audience, as Toyota was seen rebadging all the popular Maruti Suzuki cars, therefore, how could the Ertiga be left behind. So, finally Toyota unveiled its new rebadged Suzuki car - Toyota Rumion - officially, let’s take a deep dive into it.

Toyota Rumion is a MPV which is going to sit below the Innova Crysta MPV, as said by Toyota officials. As it happens to be a completely rebadged version of the Maruti Ertiga, the design cues are similar as well and not only this the powertrain options offered are also the same. So let’s discuss details about the Toyota Rumion.

Design

Front Profile

The Design changes have been kept minimal, yet distinctive towards Toyota Innova Crysta. The front bumper has been redesigned to make it resemble the big brother, the Innova Crysta - with wide triangular grille and a Toyota logo badged into it.

Side profile

The side remains the same with a change in the Alloy wheels. The Alloy wheel design has been changed to a more striking and typical Toyota alloys design.

Rear Profile

The rear has been kept unchanged in the Rumion.

Overall, the changed design bits do make it look different from the Maruti Ertiga. And it also quite resembles the Toyota Innova Crysta.

Engine

Toyota has decided to offer the same engine option, which is the 1.5 K series engine from Maruti Suzuki’s house. It produces 102 PS & 136 Nm of torque.

It is also available with a CNG fuel option in particular variants of the car. The CNG mode makes the engine produce noticeably less power - 87 PS & 121 Nm of torque.

Toyota claims that the Petrol powered Rumion could produce up to 20 Km/l of mileage and in CNG mode it could go up to 26 Km/Kg of mileage.

Interior

Interior as always in the Suzuki - Toyota affair has been kept unchanged. Well, with one change though which was mandatory, the Toyota Logo on the steering wheel.

The Ertiga is already decently equipped with features and so will be the Rumion. But, to talk precisely then, 

Entertainment -

• 7 inch Touch screen 

• Android Auto & Apple Car play

• Music System connected to a 6 speakers

• Steering mounted controls for the Music system & Call related operations

• It is also provided with Toyota i-connect, providing various remotely operated features

Air conditioning -

• Automatic Climate control is on offer

• Front AC vents

• Rear Roof mounted vents are offered with a common Fan speed adjuster

• No AC vents for the third row

Instrumentation - 

• Analogue - Digital

• Average speed 

• Average Fuel consumption

• Instantaneous Fuel Consumption

• Distance to empty

• And much information related to the vehicle

Lighting has been kept budget friendly by providing -

• Halogen projector

• Tail lights - LED Brake lights and rest all halogen

• Halogen Fog lights are also provided

Variants

The Rumion is set to be offered in a total of 3 variants. S, G and V. 

S’ sub - variant with a CNG fuel option will also be provided. 

The following table shows the probable distribution of Toyota Rumion’s variants -

Safety

Being a Suzuki Ertiga underneath, honestly it's better not to expect much from Toyota Rumion’s structural build, as the Ertiga had scored 3 stars in the crash test. Though few safety features offered by Maruti in Ertiga are also offered in the Rumion by Toyota, like -

• Dual Front Airbags

• Dual Front seat - side airbags

• ABS with EBD 

• Brake assist

• ESP

• Hill hold assist

• ISO fix mounts

Price & Launch

The price details have not been disclosed yet. But, with respect to Toyota’s previous prices of rebadged cars from Maruti, we can expect around ₹30,000 - ₹40,000 extra compared to Maruti Ertiga.

The launch details have been disclosed by the Toyota officials. According to them, the Rumion will be launched in this coming festive season.

Personal Opinion

In the first place, we are not quite leaning towards the rebadging business. So, the Rumion’s launch doesn’t really excite us. Though, if Toyota would have made some major changes to the Rumion compared to the Ertiga, then maybe it would have been interesting to notice the competition. But that’s not the case, so we presume that the Rumion will perform in the same way as the other rebadged Maruti cars are performing under Toyota’s name. It might not create that buzz to disturb Ertiga’s dominant kingdom in the segment.